Christmas at Hogwarts
by EllieLovesToRead
Summary: When both Lily and James stay behind at Hogwarts for Christmas, how close will they become?


**Christmas at Hogwarts**

_By Eleanor Jane Farrell_

Lily was sitting in the Gryffindor common room. Her head was against the window; outside it was snowing heavily, coating the ground with a thick white blanket. The snow had always fascinated her. She could remember having snowball fights with her family and Petunia would always build a snowman with her. That was before she went to Hogwarts of course. Ever since she's been going, her sister had never had a kind word towards her. They were always bickering about something, Lily suspected that she was jealous.

Tomorrow, everybody would leave to go spend their Christmas with their families. This year, Lily had decided stay behind. Petunia had invited her boyfriend round to stay over Christmas and, quite frankly, Lily couldn't stand him. He was more conceited than what James used to be. James had seemed to have deflated his head an awful lot this year, he was no longer unbearable to be around. In fact, Lily frequently enjoyed his company. She felt herself blush at that thought. She had also noticed that he had matured a lot too. That wasn't the only thing that she had noticed recently. She had found out that Quidditch does wonders for the body, especially the muscles. She felt the heat in her face as she blushed again.

Across the room, James Potter was sitting by the fire with his three best friends. Lily observed that he was playing chess with Sirius, beside them was Remus with his head buried in a book and Peter, who was idly poking a piece of scrunched up paper with his wand. Every so often Remus would look up and spectate the chess game. Lily jumped at the loud bang that cut through the air; the paper that Peter was prodding had exploded. The scorched parchment had left black residue all over his face, as well as the other three boys' faces. James was lucky to only get a cute smudge on his cheek but the other two weren't so lucky. Lily heard Remus complain loudly that it had gotten all over his book. She heard James and Sirius laugh their heads off at Peter. Sirius was laughing so much that he fell off of his chair and that caused James to laugh even harder. Everyone in the room started laughing at Sirius rolling on the floor, Lily included. After a while, everybody calmed down and went back to their activities.

Lily smiled as she saw Alice heading towards her. She looked rather excited and Lily guessed that it had nothing to do with the Christmas holidays. Alice hurried over and sat into the chair opposite her.

"Guess what?" Alice said in excited tones.

"What?"

"Frank Longbottom just asked me out!" Alice grinned like a Cheshire cat.

"What, the one you have been pining over for years?" Lily teased.

"Yes, that Frank."

"Well, that's great!" Lily's smile was genuine.

"I have to go pack!" Alice suddenly raised from her chair. "Mary and Marlene are in the library, they said something about Herbology homework. I think they forgot to do it." Lily watched as she retreated up the dormitory stairs. She sneaked another glance at James and abruptly looked away when she made eye contact with him. His eyes were a very nice shade of hazel. Lily willed herself not to blush because she was sure that James would see. She hated the effect that James was having on her. She took a deep breath and turned towards the window, biting back her embarrassed smile. Lily turned back around when she felt a presence behind her. She came face to face with James, of all people, and jumped back a little.

"James! You frightened me!" Lily had her hand over her chest.

"Hey… Lily," her name on his tongue sounded sweet, drawing her in. "Why are you sitting over here all by your self?" He smiled at her.

"I was…erm… taking in the scenery," she replied and gestured to the window.

"Yeah, I've always liked the snow. Come and sit with us by the fire, I'll give you a game of chess." James took Lily's hand and led her over. Lily laughed as she noticed that he still had a black smudge on his face. "What are you laughing at?"

"You have a mark across your cheek," she explained to him. He made an effort to rub it off. "No, you other cheek." Lily pointed and laughed when he missed the spot. "You're hopeless, come here." She took his hand in hers and placed in onto his cheek, and this time the mark came off. "It's gone now."

A few minutes later, Lily was laughing and joking with the boys. James and Sirius had snuck off to the kitchens and brought back a load of marshmallows. They slowly roasted them on the fire and handed them out to their fellow Gryffindors. Lily was quite comfortable sitting by the heat of the fire and every so often she would watch James roast the marshmallows. Everyone in the room was in good spirit; there was a lot of good humoured joking and idle chitchat. Lily turned her head towards the portrait of the Fat Lady as it opened, Marlene and Mary came through it. Lily stood up quickly as if she was ashamed to be caught sitting next to James and made her way towards them. They both acknowledged her and pushed through a gathering of second year students.

"Hey, where have you been?" Lily noticed that they seemed a little out of breath. "Alice said something about the library."

"Yeah, we forgot to do our Herbology homework. We had to hand it in today," Marlene answered her.

"We almost missed curfew. We had to run here," Mary added. "and now we have to pack our trunks. See you in the dormitory?"

"You always leave things to the last minute!" Lily scolded. "You should get organised!"

"Yeah well that's easy for you to say. You're always on top of things," Marlene said, "and what is that smell?"

"Oh, James and Sirius have been roasting marshmallows on the fire," Lily explained and watched as her two friends looked over at the fire. She had a bad feeling about the smirk that came across Mary's face.

"And I suppose that was the only reason you were sitting with him when we came in?"

"He invited me over because I was sitting on my own," Lily admitted.

"Well, I want some marshmallows. I'll be right back," Marlene announced but Mary and Lily followed her over. Lily noticed that James watched her as she made her way towards him.

"There you are! I was wondering where you went," James said to her. "Hello, Marlene, Mary, did you want a marshmallow?" He waved the stick with the marshmallow on in front of their faces.

"Thank you, James." Mary snatched the sweet from him. "Mmm… delicious." He gave both girls quite a few before they said that they had to go pack.

"Bye, Marley!" Lily watched as Sirius winked at Marlene who just rolled her eyes in return.

"Come on, Lily," Mary pulled Lily with them, "you can help us pack." Lily gave a short wave to the boys as she was ushered towards the stairs.

Lily had to hold back a laugh when she entered her dormitory; Alice was buried in a bunch of clothes and was hunting for something underneath her bed. Another roommate of Lily's, Emmeline Vance, was having the same luck as Alice. The room was a mess. Lily thought that it may have been best to just leave them to pack on their own but she decided against it. She had agreed to help after all. After some stressful packing, all of Lily's friends were all packed and ready for the holidays. Before she went to bed, Lily chattered with her friends and occasionally Emmeline joined in. Around half a hour later, a giggling Amelia Bones joined them. By this time Lily had become drowsy so she got ready for bed. She wasn't particularly looking forward to spending her Christmas alone but it was better than the alternative. As she laid in bed she thought that her sister had probably invited Vernon over just so she wouldn't come home for the holidays. It was rather mean of her. Lily thoughts drifted back to her time with James that night as she fell asleep.

The next morning, Lily was roughly shaken out of bed by Mary. She rolled over and put her head under her pillow. Her actions got Mary to shake her harder so Lily finally spoke up.

"Go away!" she mumbled. "Let me sleep."

"No way! Come on, Lils," Mary argued, "we go home today." Lily suddenly came alert then.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," Lily yawned. "It's probably because I'm not actually going home." She dragged herself out of bed and headed towards the bathroom. A while later, she appeared fully dressed and showered.

The girls made their way down to the Great Hall as Mary was talking animatedly about her plans for the holiday. Lily was only half-heartedly listening, Mary was now talking about all the cousins that she had invited. As Lily entered the hall and the sight entranced her; the room was beautifully decorated and brightly illuminated. "Wow!" she heard Mary exclaim beside her. "That's really pretty. Why didn't they decorate as good as this last year?"

"It is pretty," Lily agreed and walked over the Gryffindor table to find them seats. There were butterflies in Lily's stomach as she realised that the only available seats were next to James. He looked up as she made her way towards him and he waved and gestured to the seats.

"Good morning ladies," Sirius called as they sat down. "You're up late."

"'Morning," James greeted them.

"Hello, boys. I had to shove Lily out of bed this morning." Lily blushed at that comment and avoided eye contact with everyone.

"It's normally James who pushes me out of bed," Sirius explained, noticing Lily's awkwardness. "He's an early bird. He gets up at like 6:00AM every morning! 6:00AM!"

"Stop being dramatic, Padfoot," James laughed, "I don't wake you up at that time so it shouldn't affect you." Sirius just stuck his tongue out at him in return.

"Have you boys packed for the holidays then?" Mary asked.

"I have!" Lily thought Sirius seemed excited. "This year I'm staying with my Uncle Alphard."

"I haven't," James spoke up and continued before Lily could say anything. "I'm staying here. My parents are working over Christmas." Lily didn't know what was worse: being stuck with Vernon or being stuck with James, especially because all of her emotions were going haywire around him.

"Lily's staying here too," Mary blurted out.

"You are?" James looked at Lily. "At least I won't be the only Gryffindor staying here. Hot chocolate?" He offered Lily the mug. She took the drink from him but grabbed a slice of mince pie too. They all ate their breakfast in silence. Lily heard Alice and Marlene talking further down the table, they were discussing whether or not it would be snowing when they got home. As breakfast came to an end, Dumbledore stood up and wished everybody a Merry Christmas.

The students poured out of the hall, excited to go home. Lily had decided to go out and say goodbye to her friends. As they left the building, she realised that the floor was really icy from the snow. She watched the students slip around all over the place, and carefully walked with her friends to the carriages.

"Bye Lils!" she heard Alice shout to her. "Have a nice Christmas and thank you for my present! I've left your one on your bed but don't open it until tomorrow!"

"Thank you, Alice!" she called back. "You have a nice Christmas too!" She then spotted Mary and Marlene and said goodbye to them as well. As she made her way back to the school, her foot slid. Before she fell, she felt a pair of strong arms around her, they lingered on her waist a little bit too long for her liking.

"Whoa… Lily!" it was James. "Be careful! You almost fell on your butt there."

"Thanks," she answered in a quite voice.

"No problem. Are you heading back to the common room?" he asked, his eyes curious.

"I don't really know where I'm going," Lily stated, "I'm just going for a walk."

"Oh, alright then," James replied. "Well, If you need me I'll be in the library. I figured that I should get my homework out of the way at the start of the holidays." Lily had a look of bemusement on her face. She supposed that was sensible but she didn't expect that from James.

"Okay then. I'll see you later?" Lily mentally hit herself as she almost seemed desperate to see him.

"You bet!" He smiled cheekily at her. Lily couldn't answer as her throat had swelled up, and she couldn't get her words out. That was a new feeling, she thought as she trotted along the path to the Black Lake. She faintly heard James bid her goodbye.

Later that day, Lily also found herself in the library doing homework. However, she didn't see James in there so she just assumed that he had finished and was somewhere else. She was kind of hoping that she'd find him there though. Lily sighed loudly and the librarian shot her a dirty look. Lily rolled her eyes, it wasn't as if she was disturbing other students. She didn't know how long she spent in the library but she couldn't concentrate on her work as her mind was on a raven-haired boy with glasses. Finally, Lily had had enough. She packed up her things and placed the books back on the self. She decided that she'd go and seek out James; she was getting lonely and needed some company.

Lily found James in the common room. A few students were there too but none that Lily really knew. She was going to go sit with James but held back when she realised that he was helping a third year with something. With further observation, she found out it was his Transfiguration homework, James's favourite subject. They were just finishing up, Lily heard the boy he was helping thank him and then he scuttled off to join his friends. James raised out of his seat and walked across the common room in Lily's direction. It was then that she realised that he hadn't noticed her yet. He turned around as somebody called his name. Lily watched him nod in a response to a question. However, Lily was so interested in what they were talking about that she didn't notice that James had walked closer to her, and with him not really looking where he was going, the inevitable happened. Lily felt a hard object collide with her. Both she and James fell to the floor. His text books skidded in different directions, scattering like frightened birds. Lily laid there for a while, blinking. She finally came to her senses when she heard James groan beside her. She turned a lovely shade of red when she realised that the remaining students in the room were laughing at them. Lily untangled her leg from James. She was thoroughly humiliated but at least everyone had stopped laughing. She felt James shift beside her but she refused to make eye contact with him. Lily hauled herself up only to go skidding on one of the discarded books that James had dropped. She felt herself hit the ground for a second time and more laughter followed. Lily felt tears of shame sting her eyes but she held them back. She finally glanced at James to see if he was laughing at her. She was shocked to see him holding his leg in pain. James wasn't laughing; he seemed just as mortified as she was. Lily watched as James attempted to stand up but his leg gave way under his weight and he hissed in pain. "James!" Lily was concerned now. "Are you okay?"

He took a while to answer her, "I'm fine…" he replied grimacing. Lily watched him rotate his ankle around a little bit as if it would relieve him of the pain. "I think I've twisted my ankle," he finally concluded. Lily picked herself off of the ground carefully, certain not to step on any books this time, and held her hand out to James. He took the hand and Lily heaved him off of the floor. James stared at Lily for a while before he uttered, "I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going."

Lily looked at him in disbelief before she added, "Don't be sorry, I wasn't looking either." He smiled sheepishly at her but then grimaced again when he shifted his weight onto his hurt leg. Lily frowned at him. "You're not okay, are you? You should go to the hospital wing," Lily was insistent.

Minutes later, James was hobbling to the hospital wing using Lily to learn on. Lily felt tingly at the close body contact she was having with James. She didn't think she had ever been this close to him. Her breath hitched as she inhaled his scent; it smelt of musk. Before they could reach the hospital wing, they bumped into Professor McGonagall.

"Mr Potter, Miss Evans," she looked at them sternly, "what are you doing out here. You should -" she stopped in mid sentence as she took in the scene of James leaning on Lily. She adjusted her glasses before asking, "What on Earth are you two doing?"

"James has hurt his leg," Lily answered her. "I'm taking him to the hospital wing, Professor." James just nodded at his Transfiguration professor in agreement, his face displaying pain.

"Very well," McGonagall replied crisply, she nodded to them and carried on walking. James looked at Lily in bemusement.

"She must be in a hurry," Lily concluded and shifted under James weight. "Come on," she urged him.

"Mmm," James replied, absent-mindedly. Finally, they reached in hospital wing. The school nurse, a young, strict woman, came to greet them. She tutted at James and sat him down on one of the beds. Lily noticed that James didn't meet her eye as Madame Pomfrey tended to his leg.

"You've sprained your ankle, Potter," Madame Pomfrey stated, "you're lucky, it's only a minor one. Slipped on the snow a presume?" Both Lily and James were too embarrassed by the accident to correct her. "Here drink this, it should help with the pain and it'll help you heal faster." She handed James a potion and then started to wrap his leg in a bandage. "You should be fine within a couple of weeks. There is no point in keeping you in here, so just keep you ankle elevated and drink some of this once a day." The nurse handed James a vial of the potion and walked into her office. Lily thought that that was their cue to leave so she went go help James up but he got up on his own.

The walk back to the common room was a long one. James was limping slightly but didn't give any indication that he wanted to stop. Lily didn't give him a choice when she helped him up the stairs and ignored his vaguely annoyed look that he gave her. Once they got to the Gryffindor Tower they muttered the password to the Fat Lady and entered their common room.

"Well," James started, with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, "that was fun." He laughed and sat down in the chair by the window and gestured for Lily to do the same. She quickly obliged and blushed at the intense stare that she was receiving from him.

She cleared her throat and replied, also sarcastically, "Very interesting." James gave her a little chuckle before looking out of the window. Lily didn't know how long they sat there in the comfortable silence but after a while her thoughts wandered. She thought about Christmas day, which was a day away, and what her friends had got her. She pondered about her family back home and what they were doing at the moment and whether her mum was angry at her because she had chosen to stay at school. Finally, her thoughts came back to James and how cute he looked at the moment. Her face flushed as she once again made eye contact with James.

Lily was sure he had noticed her blush but then he spoke up again, "Did you want to play a game of wizard's chess? We didn't get around to playing the game I promised you yesterday."

"Oh, erm…" Lily broke off, she didn't really want to admit to James that she didn't know how to play, "I don't really know how to play," she admitted in a small voice. James just smiled at her in a way that made Lily's heart flutter.

"Did you want me to teach you?" he asked her.

"Okay," she agreed to the idea, "I'm not going to be very good though…"

"You will," James said certainly, "I'll teach you to be good, then you will be able to beat Mary." He smiled reassuringly at Lily, got out of his chair and limped towards his dormitory stairs.

Lily got up quickly at the sight and hurriedly said, "I'll help you up the stairs."

James just stared at her for a while before he replied, "Whoa Evans, desperate to see where I sleep?" He smiled teasingly at her but waited for her to come over. Normally, Lily wouldn't have been impressed with a innuendo but this time she just laughed at him. They made their way up the spiral staircase until they reached James's dormitory. Lily looked around and was surprised to find the room fairly tidy except for one of the four-poster beds, which Lily was positive that it was Peter's.

"Wow, you boys keep your room quite tidy," Lily commented and then looked at Peter's bed, "well almost."

James laughed before answering, "That's Peter's space. He's really unorganised, poor guy. I guess he lets us down but, then again, we don't usually have visitors up here so…"

"I thought that might be Peter's bed," Lily admitted, "so where's this chess set of yours?"

"Here." James presented the set. "Let's go."

Lily and James spent the last few hours before dinner playing chess. James had taught Lily to play beforehand and now she was quite confident in playing but she had yet to beat James. Eventually, they headed down to the great hall for dinner, with Lily still helping James down the stairs. She could tell he was getting a little bit annoyed now but she carried on helping anyway. They ate their dinner quickly, they had had a choice from a variety of pasta dishes. Lily chose her favourite, spaghetti bolognaise. Soon after, they headed back to the common room and that's when James disappeared for quite a while, reappearing some time later.

"James, where have you been?" Lily asked, on his return. "You left me here on my own."

"Sorry…" he said. "I've been writing to my family and friends. My parents might be home for boxing day."

"Oh," Lily replied surprised, she'd expected him to be getting in trouble, or something, "okay then. That's nice." They both sat down by the fire and listened to some of the younger students attempting to sing Christmas carols.

"So, are you excited for tomorrow?" James finally spoke.

"Kind of," Lily replied, "although it's weird not being with my family."

James looked confused at that, "Then why didn't you go home for Christmas?"

"My sister…" Lily explained, "she's invited her boyfriend… we don't really get along."

"That's too bad," James sympathised. "I don't have any brothers or sisters so I can't say that I have the same problem. Gets lonely at times but Sirius is usually there to keep me company, he's there more often than not now."

"Sometimes, I wish I never had a sister," Lily explained to James. "Don't get me wrong, I love her it's just that she can be real mean to me. I think she's jealous that.. that I got to go to Hogwarts and she didn't." Lily shrugged and looked at James, in which she had undivided attention from. "I'm sorry, you didn't really need to know that. I don't know why but I feel that I can talk to you easily."

"Maybe it's because I listen." He smiled at Lily. "I'm sure your sister well come 'round, if not, then it's her loss. I'm sure you're a great sister." James yawned and looked at his watch.

"It's getting late," Lily mentioned, "maybe we should go to bed." She gave him a sly look. "Besides, the earlier we go to bed the sooner we get to open our presents." James chuckled at her and made it up the stairs before Lily could help him.

The next morning, Lily awoke to a tap on the window. With further inspection, she realised that in was an owl trying to get in. She rushed over to the window and let it in. It flew in and landed on her bed and stuck it's leg out. Lily gently took the parcel and letter from the owl and watched as it flew back out. The letter was from here mother. It read:

_"My dearest Lily,_

_It's a shame that you didn't come home for Christmas this year, I was looking forward to seeing you. I have left most of your presents at home as I don't think this poor owl can carry them all. I did let him bring one though, I think it would be the most useful as you said that you don't use electricity at your school. Merry Christmas, darling._

_Take care,_

_Love from Mum."_

Lily smiled at the letter and put it to one side as she attacked the parcel, inside was an assortment of sweets and chocolate. She then moved on to her friends presents. She got a book from Alice, more chocolate from Mary and some perfume from Marlene. Lily was happy with her presents and this showed as she cheerfully walked down her dormitory stairs with a bounce in her step. Her happy mood brightened at the sight of James in the common room his leg was propped up on a chair but he didn't seem in pain.

"Merry Christmas Lily!" he called to her as he noticed her.

"Merry Christmas!" she called back and placed herself next to James.

"Skipping breakfast?" he questioned her.

"Of course! It's tradition! Who on earth has breakfast on Christmas?"

James laughed at her, "Well, one time my mum made me eat breakfast before I opened my presents."

"That's rubbish!" she replied. "I've never had breakfast on Christmas day."

James chuckled a little before handing a small box wrapped in a ribbon to her. "Merry Christmas, Lily." Lily was taken aback, she hadn't even got him anything.

"James… I.. I haven't got you anything," she said to him, very ashamed but James just smiled wider at her.

"I don't give to receive, Lils." Lily felt her heart flutter at the nickname he used. "Just open it."

She carefully untied the ribbon and opened the box. She gasped when she saw what it contained.

"James! It's beautiful! Too beautiful!" Inside was a silver necklace that contained a lily pendant.

"Just like it's owner," he replied. Lily thought what he said was little cheesy but let it pass as he did just complement her.

She blushed bright red before hugging James tightly. "Thank you."

James smiled even wider, if possible. "You're welcome." James motioned for her to turn around so he could put her necklace on her.

Later that day, Lily and James were swapping many stories of Christmases with their families.

"There was one time when my Aunt came down and she got drunk and rolled in the snow outside singing at the top of her voice," James explained while Lily laughed.

"About two Christmases ago, I got so annoyed with Petunia that I 'accidentally' spilt my drink over her," Lily told James, "you should have seen her face. It was hilarious."

"Mmhm…" James's eyes seemed amused, "What did she do to annoy you?"

"Erm…" Lily thought for a while, "I can't really remember," she laughed and James joined her. Lily suddenly stopped laughing and looked at James, he seemed so adorable when he laughed. When he noticed Lily wasn't laughing anymore, James stopped and looked at her staring at him. Lily was sure that he realised that she was looking at his lips, she looked up at him with shock but then relaxed when she noticed that he had the same look aimed towards her. Lily leaned closer to James and James moved closer to her, Lily's stomach was doing flip-flops at the thought of kissing James. Finally, James closed the gap between them and captured her lips. Lily tensed at first, then relaxed, hesitantly kissing him back. Lily reached up and ran her hands through James hair like she had seen him do on more than one occasion. After a short while they pulled back for breath and Lily grinned stupidly at James. Above them was a sprig of mistletoe, neither of them had noticed.

"Merry Christmas James," Lily whispered.

Later on that day, James and Lily were seen entering the Great Hall holding hands, grinning as wide as possible.

* * *

**A/N: Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you enjoy this story. :) Please review. :D**

**Edited: 10/12/11 I read this back and realised that I had abused the comma - sorry!  
**


End file.
